Vileness Fats
Vileness Fats is an unfinished film project by The Residents, filmed primarily from 1972 to 1976. The group shot over fourteen hours of footage for the project, but were not even two-thirds of the way through their incomplete script before they abandoned the project. Excerpts from the film have been released; first in 1984 as the 30-minute featurette Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?, and in 2001 on the Icky Flix DVD as a 17-minute "concentrate". Despite this, many of the scenes shot for the project have never been publicly released. In late 2016 The Residents announced that they were attempting to fund a semi-sequel to Vileness Fats, featuring original video material from the unfinished film. The new film project, Double Trouble, remains in pre-production as of January 2020. History Origins (1972) In 1972, The Residents had just moved from the small apartment in San Mateo where they had lived and recorded for four years, into a two-floor studio space in a former printworks at 20 Sycamore Street, San Francisco. The new space was promptly dubbed "El Ralpho" by the group, and became the center of operations for their recording studios and home of their newly founded independent record label Ralph Records. The Sycamore Street space featured a completely open ground floor, seemingly ideal for a soundstage. The group's projects were rapidly expanding in ambition, some funding was being provided by an independently wealthy friend, John Kennedy, and they had begun to feel that a feature film would be the perfect medium for the ideas they had been developing. The studio was spacious, but not quite big enough to house a full film studio. To circumvent this problem and be able to fit sets into the ground floor space, The Residents decided to make the film's primary characters midgets, designing the costumes so that full-height actors could crouch in them. Initial production (1972-1974) The group created elaborate sets (with the assistance of friends Homer Flynn and Hardy Fox) in a style influenced by the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The sets were built from cardboard, and the space limitations meant that each set had to be completely dismantled before the next one could be built. This affected the filming schedule and sometimes even the script, which was still developing as the group were shooting. The Residents hired people to assist with the production as they found a need. Graeme Whifler helped the group with lighting and some directing, and the members of what would later become The Cryptic Corporation (Flynn, Fox, Kennedy and Jay Clem) assisted in a number of ways. Clem was also the lead actor in the film, portraying a dual character: the religious figure Saint Steve, and his alter ego, the film's villain, Lonesome Jack. Alongside Clem and appearances from Fox, Homer and Diane Flynn, KBOO-FM disc jockey and musician Schwump appeared in black-face, singing Al Jolson's "Mammy", as well as J. Raoul Brody, Margaret Smyk and the mysterious N. Senada (among many others) in various roles. Video tape (1974-1976) filming Mother (Marge Howard)]] Without a film company in control of the project, The Residents were completely free in their artistic expression, something they felt was very important. They largely financed the film themselves (with one member selling his sports car to help fund the production) and could only work on it during evenings and weekends, due to the day-jobs the members of the group were holding in order to pay for it all. After having shot a number of sequences on film, The Residents discovered 1/2" black and white video tape, which had recently become available on a consumer level. They decided to adopt video tape in the filming of Vileness Fats, feeling that video would be an important medium in the future, and wanting to be pioneers of new media. With tape, they could see the results of their work immediately after filming, allowing the group to re-shoot when necessary. Unlike film, video tape did not have to be developing, meaning they could cut down on costs. Abandonment (1976) An overall lack of direction meant that the production of Vileness Fats dragged on for many years. By 1976, The Residents had shot fourteen hours of footage, and still were not even two thirds of the way through the still-incomplete script. To make matters worse, 1/2" black and white video tape had already become obsolete by this time, due to the introduction of the Beta and VHS color formats, so the many scenes shot on tape looked dated even though it had only recently been shot. There was no way that the video could be transferred to film, and re-shooting the footage on color videotape or on film was out of the question, as too much of the film had already been shot and too much money had been spent. The space limitations were also becoming a problem – it took a full year for the group to build the set for the nightclub sequence, and then film it. Finally, shortly after The Residents released their second album The Third Reich 'n' Roll (the cover of which advertises the film as an upcoming release) they abandoned Vileness Fats entirely. Legacy Vileness Fats dominated the group's lives for the four years that it was in production. Even when they were taking breaks from the film and working on other projects, Fats would creep in. "Aircraft Damage" (or "Kick A Cat") from the group's 1972 EP Santa Dog is taken directly from the film's soundtrack; Margaret Smyk joined The Residents as the character Peggy Honeydew for their early live performances between 1971 and 1976, and the 1977 Third Reich 'n Roll promotional video was filmed, for the most part, on the Vileness Fats sets, using Vileness Fats props.Not content to let even their failed projects go to waste, The Residents (and their newly-founded management company The Cryptic Corporation) proceeded to tease the outside world with stills from the film, incorporating the mysterious film that never was into their mythology and releasing two heavily shortened versions of the film (each with a newly-created soundtrack) in 1984 and 2001. The Cryptic Corporation attempted another entrance into the film industry by developing a concept for a science-fiction movie theater, the Ugly Grey Theater, in 1977. The proposal was aggressively petitioned by members of the neighborhood the theater was intended for, who mistakenly believed that the Cryptics would use the space as a gay porn theater. When one of The Residents' eyeball masks was stolen during their 13th Anniversary Show tour in 1986, they used a skull from the production (also seen in the Third Reich video) to replace it, creating the recurring Mr. Skull persona in the process. The Cryptic Corporation have occasionally announced plans to remaster the fourteen hours of original footage, with the intention of editing it into a new stand-alone Vileness Fats DVD, but to date this project has never come to fruition. The Vileness Fats footage was digitized in 2015, in a crowd-funded effort to preserve The Residents' film and video archives during the production of the Don Hardy documentary ''Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents''. Plot synopsis The village of Vileness Flats is constantly under attack by the Atomic Shopping Carts, armoured carts with large drills on their front. A bridge keeps the Carts away, but the villagers enlist the conjoined twin tag-team wrestlers Arf & Omega Berry (Palmer Eiland and George Ewart) to protect them. The Berry Boys successfully battle off the Atomic Shopping Carts, and a banquet is held in their honour at the town hall, where they are personally thanked by the Mayor of Vileness Flats. Saint Steve (Jay Clem), the village's resident religious leader, gives a lengthy, boring speech. The twins heckle and throw food at Steve, and he leaves, dejected. The defeat of the Atomic Shopping Carts leads to a new problem for Vileness Flats – the Bell Boys, a gang of midgets who live in the desert on the other side of the bridge. The Bell Boys hatch a plan to disguise themselves as meat in order to cross the now-safe bridge, and steal all real meat from the village. These raids deprive the villagers of necessary protein, causing unrest in the village. Steve has his own problems. No one but his mother (Marge Howard) knows that he is actually two people – Steve, the religious leader of Vileness Flats, and Lonesome Jack, the leader of the Bell Boys and the mastermind of the meat raids. To complicate matters further, both Steve and Jack are deeply in love with the immortal Indian princess Weescoosa (Sally Lewis), who has spent eternity searching for her one true love. Sadly, whenever it looks like she has found him, he dies. The villagers ask Arf & Omega to handle the Bell Boys, and they accept. Before they do anything, however, the twins decide to head to a local nightclub, Uncle Willy's to relax. The nightclub hosts performances by The Mysterious N. Senada and Peggy Honeydew (Margaret Smyk). Honeydew flirts with both twins, causing them to become jealous of each other. Secretly she is part of a plan to distract the Berry Boys, so that Lonesome Jack and the Bell Boys will be free to attack the village. Arf & Omega become so enraged with each other that they engage in a knife duel (overseen by a cape-dancing Death figure), ultimately killing each other. Steve, confused and worried about the whole mess, decides to jump into a local volcano, The Window of Never, to kill himself and thus get rid of the problems facing Vileness Flats. Suddenly, the entire town appears behind him, and he jumps. Steve is rescued at the last second by his mother, and survives with only minor brain damage, which also cures his schizophrenia, defeating Lonesome Jack once and for all. Cast as Weescoosa, the Indian Princess]] * Saint Steve/Lonesome Jack - Jay Clem * Weescoosa - Sally Lewis * Arf & Omega Berry - Palmer Eiland and George Ewart * Steve's Mother - Marge Howard * Ninnie/Weenie - Danny Williams * Peggy Honeydew - Margaret Smyk * Uncle Willy - Hardy Fox * The Mysterious N. Senada as himself with: * Hugo Olson * J. Raoul Brody * Barry "Schwump" Schwam * Alberto * Dan * Bill Dewalt * Irene Dogmatic * Homer Flynn * Diane Flynn * Ken and Sally * Tony Logan * Dennis Sealy Crew * Lighting - Graeme Whifler * Sets - The Residents * Costumes - The Residents and Diane Flynn * Editing - John Kennedy * "Napoleon" Scene Set and Direction - Graeme Whifler Soundtrack as the fabulous Miss Peggy Honeydew|left]]Prior to the early 21st century, no music known to originate from the Vileness Fats project had been released to fans. Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? featured an "almost all-new" soundtrack, and the "concentrate" version on the 2001 Icky Flix DVD also featured a newly-recorded soundtrack, with the option of viewing the new edit with the relevant selections from the 1984 soundtrack. Both re-recorded versions include musical numbers from the film, including "The Importance of Evergreen", "Eloise", and "Lord It's Lonely". A small clip of Peggy Honeydew performing "Fever" on the Vileness Fats set was briefly released on the group's website at an unconfirmed time and has since circulated among fans. A clip of N. Senada performing "Kamikaze Lady" on the nightclub set has also circulated on the Internet. In 2015, director of the Theory of Obscurity documentary Don Hardy uploaded short outtakes from the then-recently digitized Vileness Fats film and video, including a previously unseen clip of Peggy Honeydew performing Randy Newman's "Lonely At The Top" (later to become "Lord It's Lonely"). An hour long suite titled "X Is For Xtra", thought to include a number of pieces of music intended for the score to the original version of Vileness Fats, was released in 2019 on the pREServed edition of the group's 1978 album Not Available (the final version of which is known to have incorporated elements from the discarded score). Songs * "Kick A Cat" - Arf & Omega * "Mammy" - Schwump * "The Importance of Evergreen" - Lonesome Jack and The Bell Boys * "Eloise" - N. Senada * "Kamikaze Lady" - N. Senada * "Lonely At The Top" - Peggy Honeydew * "Fever " - Peggy Honeydew Instrumental score * "Mehico Ron Devoo" * "Ho Ho Bumped His Toe" * "Fairly Well" * "March of the Winnebagos" * "Slow Texture" * "Tennessee Williams" * "Asonarose" * "Tune of the Unknown" * "Soundtrack Music Piece 17" * "Mehico Ron Devoo Finale" * "Russian Love Song" Released versions ]] ''Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? ''(1984) In 1984, The Residents discovered that the state of video technology had advanced to the point where they could salvage their old 1/2" ''Vileness Fats footage and transfer it to VHS. With this, they created a 30 minute feature with a newly-recorded soundtrack, titled Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?. '' This version focuses on Arf and Omega, from the Atomic Shopping Cart battle to the knife fight at Uncle Willy's. It also spends a lot of time on Steve's mother, but touches only briefly on the Bell Boys, Lonesome Jack, and Weescoosa. As it does not include the original soundtrack, it has very little dialogue and is not overly concerned with conveying a coherent narrative. ''Icky Flix ''(2001) '' DVD, 2001]] In 2001, The Residents released their retrospective multimedia project ''Icky Flix on DVD and CD. The DVD featuring a new 17 minute "concentrate" edit of Vileness Fats, with another newly-recorded soundtrack by the group (which was also featured on the CD). This version focuses mainly on Steve, touches only briefly on the Atomic Shopping Cart battle, and features the Bell Boys and Lonesome Jack more prominently. Despite being the shortest version available, this is currently considered the best place to see the Vileness Fats footage, as it has been cleaned up and restored to its best quality (taking into consideration the age of the tapes.) Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents (2015) Outtakes and previously unseen footage were included in the documentary Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents in 2015. As part of the production of the documentary, the entire video archives of The Residents, including the fourteen hours of Vileness Fats footage, were digitized in their entirety, and further short snippets of this footage was seen in promotional material for the documentary. Double Trouble In 2016 it was announced that some original footage from Vileness Fats will be used by the group in a new feature film project entitled Double Trouble, to be directed by Don Hardy. The new film project focuses on Randy Junior, the son of recently-deceased lead singer of The Residents, Randy Rose. Junior discovers the footage from Vileness Fats, and as he watches it his life begins to mirror that of the protagonist Steve. With this project, The Residents intend to create something new by re-purposing the original Vileness Fats footage around a new plot, directly related to the events of the original film. As of December 2019, the group are still trying to raise funds to begin shooting the film. A letter from "Harve" This letter is from an ex-record industry executive who corresponded with The Residents several years ago. After having lost his job in an industry-wide purge in the mid 1970s, he left the music business and now operates a garden shop in the Los Angeles area. In keeping with an obvious theme, he wishes to remain anonymous and undisturbed, but he did send the following reply to my inquiry. - UW''Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents'' Dear Willie, Okay! Okay! So you didn't give up and finally got me to answer one of your snivelly nagging little letters. I don't know why I'm doing this, but I guess something won't let me forget about The Residents, like all the other crap I dealt with at XXXXX (deleted) for 20 years. The Residents and me didn't have much contact. The Warner Bros. Album was okay at best, but what I really liked were pictures they sent of their movie (he means the legendary Vileness Fats - UW). I kept them in my office and even after I was fired, I still had the one of the old lady midget standing by the washing machine. Then not too long ago I was in my local video shop and what should I see but that little old lady smiling at me from a box. It had been a long time since I had even thought about The Residents, but I was hooked; I had to check it out. Okay, so it's been twenty years and you need something for your book. Here goes. I've never in my life seen such a brilliant example of the art of claustrophobia. It's like when you were a kid and you had the friend whose father kept an incredibly outrageous model train set in his basement. You never saw the kid's father around the neighborhood, except maybe driving the car, because he was always down in that basement. And maybe once or twice, if you were lucky, the kid would sneak you down there while his old man was at work or at a lodge meeting or something and there it was: trees, mountains, towns, an amusement park with little ferris wheels, dogs, cats, policemen chasing robbers and a stadium with lights and baseball game going on. All in that kid's basement and all done by his crazy father who drove a Studebaker, sitting stiff and straight and smoking a pipe. And that's what I thought about when I saw The Residents' movie. A psychotic model train set crammed into a corner basement of Hell and if my mind had just stopped there, maybe everything would have been all right. But no, my imagination kept going. I would see that little old lady, the one who kept saying, "More dirty white clothes! More dirty white clothes!" and I would wonder who she was and what did she really do and how did they get her into that hellish basement. It was the same with the smiling old duffer with the top hat. Who was he? What could possibly have induced him to enter this nightmare and what did he tell his wife about how he spent his day off? "Guess what honey? I got to squat and hop around while Siamese twins threw giant broccoli at a guy with a white hat on. How was your day?" And the balloon set. Hundreds, maybe thousands of balloons stuck all over the walls of the basement and who blew them up? Someone, like my friend's father, who went home after his day job, ate his dinner and went down to that basement and blew up balloons for two weeks? Three weeks? A month? So I know you think I'm raving, but the point is - this was crazy! But not just crazy, it was ordered craziness. And I had to know what that order was. So I watched it again. And again. The third time it actually seemed to make a little sense so I cautiously decided to try it once more. Then I had it. The Hindu religion has a principle called "Maya" and it's always intrigued me. Maya is the space between perceived reality and the real thing - between human perception and the reality of the gods and I think that's what Vileness Fats is all about. Now I'm not saying that I think The Residents are Hindus, but I do think they appreciate Maya whether they've ever heard of it or not. This is the way I see it. On the side of perceived reality you have the movie - a fairly simple, if not confusing, love triangle between both sides of a split personality, representing the eternal duality of human existence, and an ageless goddess who represents hope. In classic form the conflict between good and evil is unresolved, but hope lives on. This much was easy to see, but then comes the bigger picture. And the bigger picture always walks hand and hand with, or maybe I should say solidly linked (as in Siamese twins) to Maya. The big picture is the little old lady sitting at her desk - she's a bill collector for some hospital and nervously wonders if her wrinkles are going to show later when she acts in that crazy movie for those sweet but nutty guys that work in the office next door. The big picture is convincing some wild Mexican cape dancer to paint his face white and dance right after exploding a giant weather balloon and of course getting him to do it for free. The big picture is convincing people that your fantasy is so big and so strong and full of enough of the spirit of life that no matter how crazy it looks and sounds, it's worth giving up your day off for. And I think The Residents knew that; I think they knew that anyone who watched had to eventually see the big picture, or at least its shadow, and Maya. Okay that's it. If it's too weird and off the wall for your book (I realize I'm flattering myself), I understand. JUST DON'T BOTHER ME AGAIN! And there better not be any of your weirdo fans showing up at my shop. Warmest regards Harve (not my real name) See also * Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? * Icky Flix * Double Trouble * Not Available * X Is For Xtra * The Ugly Grey Theater External links and references * Vileness Fats ''at The Residents Historical * ''Vileness Fatsat RZWeb * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vileness_Fats Vileness Fats at Wikipedia] * Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?at IMDb Category:Graveyard (unfinished projects) Category:Film and video Category:Unreleased Category:Vileness Fats Category:Double Trouble Category:Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?